The number of cars failing emissions tests has more than doubled since the new MOT introduced stricter emission rules on 20 May 2018.

Following changes to the MOT test on 20 May 2018, more than 744,592 cars have failed the emissions test. The cars have either been taken off the road or fixed, helping to improve air quality. This compares to 350,472 cars failing the emissions test during the same period in 2017.

Poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK. It’s known to have more severe effects on vulnerable groups, for example, the elderly, children and people already suffering from pre-existing lung and heart conditions. Conditions caused or made worse by air pollution include: asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic heart disease and strokes.

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“Nearly three quarters of a million cars have been fixed or taken off our roads since the changes in May which can only help improve the air quality for anybody living near busy roads.

“The DVSA are hoping to improve air quality for us all and this is a big step towards that.”

The MOT is a once-a-year health check for vehicles. However, you must keep your vehicle safe to drive (roadworthy) all year round.

Since 20 May 2018, a vehicle gets a ‘major fault’ if the MOT tester can see smoke of any colour coming from the exhaust or if they find evidence that the diesel particulate filter (DPF) has been tampered with - this captures and stores exhaust soot to reduce emissions from diesel cars

A ‘major fault’ means you need to repair the car immediately, and it then needs to pass an MOT retest. Since 20 May 2018, a total of 238,971 diesel cars and 505,721 petrol cars have failed the new emissions test. This compares to 58,004 diesel cars and 292,468 petrol cars during the same period in 2017.

The new test has also seen a 448% increase in the number of diesel vans failing. These have increased from 3,585 in 2017 to 19,648 over the same period in 2018.

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In the first 6 months of the new MOT, almost 16 million vehicles have taken the test. The overall failure rate for petrol cars (34.7%) and diesel cars (33.2%) has remained steady since the changes were introduced. They were 35.7% and 33.8% respectively in 2017.

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